Agrégateur de flux

France and India are upping their cooperation in cutting-edge intelligence sectors, in particular underwater acoustics aided by artificial intelligence (AI)

The newly elected Indonesian president, Prabowo Subianto, has decided not to buy a fleet of 12 Mirage 2000 fighter jets

Despite aggressive public declarations on defence issues, the budgetary choices of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservative government point to a

Russia's ambassador to the Holy See, Ivan Soltanovsky, has invited Pope Francis to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow in June,

On 23 February, the Washington lobbying firm founded by Robert Stryk, Stryk Global Diplomacy (SGD) - formerly Sonoran Policy Group

Source : © Union européenne, 2024 - PE

On Tuesday, 19 March, Foreign Affairs Committee will have an exchange of views with several Ministers, vice-Ministers and Secretaries of State of EU Member States on EU enlargement policy ahead of the European Council meeting end of March. This exchange of views is intended to hear the different opinions on the topic and to gather ideas to deal with the challenges the EU enlargement policy will face in the future.
Press release: Foreign Affairs Committee and EU ministers debate enlargement
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Since billionaire Robert Tsao, founder of the giant microchip group United Microelectronics Corp, announced in September 2022 plans to spend tens of millions of dollars on the creation of an elite civil defence force in Taiwan, he and the Taiwanese

Seldom discussed since the Russian aggression against Ukraine are the vast disparities between the economic wealth of the west versus the much smaller, communist/socialist dictatorship economies of Russia, Iran and North Korea (RINK) Here are two numbers to make my point perfectly clear: GDP of combined NATO countries is $47 trillion. Combined GDP of RINK is $3 trillion.  The USA alone is $28 trillion at year end 2023, compared to Russia’s $2.5 trillion, or more than 10 times larger. If wars are won purely based on economic strength, the Russian aggression should have been repelled and ended with Russia crawling back to their side of the Ukraine border within a few months had the NATO countries acted with resolve and the military might their economies can support.

When considering whether to spend another $60 billion on Ukraine (most of which is recycled through American miliary equipment manufacturers), Americans might be surprised to learn what they are getting for their $150 per person contribution. They would be supporting a fierce fighting force in relatively poor country with a per capita income level of less than $5000, compared to the USA which enjoys per capita income of $70,000.  The Ukrainians are fighting to the death for many historical reasons, one of which is to escape the stunted economic growth the country has experienced while under the control of the Kremlin. Ironically, Ukraine is poor because unlike its former USSR neighbor countries, it failed to achieve escape velocity from the iron grip of the corrupt Russian government between 1990 and 2014, when the Maiden protests finally succeeded in expelling the Kremlin’s puppet dictator Yanukovych.

Thinking about what the Ukrainians have achieved with such a relatively poor country is extraordinary. A nation with 44 million people (or roughly 35 million after the outflow of refugees) is holding off a nation of 150 million people with vast oil and gas reserves to pay for their military. The disparity in GDP between Russia and Ukraine is even more stark, barely $200 billion for Ukraine versus $2.5 trillion for Russia. This is why financial assistance is essential for Ukraine. NATO countries excluding the USA have combined GDP of $18 trillion, with Germany being the largest at $4 trillion. Total NATO GDP is $47 trillion or almost 20x that of Russia. The west and NATO citizens need to seriously adjust their perception of this ”war” and the massive imbalance in economic might.  Russia’s propaganda machine has everyone believing they have some form of economic parity and have successfully done a workaround our sanctions. When the fact is that Russia and their corrupt economy is holding by threads and with a hundred billion or more of military spending by the west, which as we have said is a very small price to pay, Russia would retreat. Putin knows this, fears this and explains his irresponsible nuclear threats.

Since WW2, Russia has been framed in the American mindset as the other superpower in terms of nuclear weapons. But what most Americans probably do not know is that Russia is far from a peer in economic terms. As stated earlier, USA GDP is $28 trillion at year end 2023 and Russia is under $3 trillion, yet Russia is able to fund upheaval, repression and bloodshed in Ukraine, the Middle East with Hamas and Iran, Georgia, Venezuela and Cuba to name just the most obvious trouble spots.  Russia will spend some $80 billion on military this year, or 3.2% percent of GDP, and up to $600 billion between 2022-2025.  But aside from the inner circle of oligarchs, the average Russian lives on well under $15,000 a year and in constant fear of speaking out about the police state in which they reside.

The US will spend about the same percentage of GDP, or about $840 billion in 2023 alone. Thus, in pure economic terms the additional $60 billion for Ukraine amounts to just an additional 7% of defense spending and just 2/10s of one percent of GDP. Given that Russia is disrupting American interests worldwide, most notably in Ukraine, the supplemental spending bill is a very small price to pay to stop Russia. The Ukrainians have done a brilliant job depleting the Russian military. Now Russian soldiers like American soldiers in Vietnam are not committed to what they are fighting for.  Whereas the Ukrainians are fighting for their independence, thus united in their conviction that they are on the right side of history.  With the proper amount of support, Ukraine together with NATOs financial superiority can push Russia back to Russia.

Consider Russia’s two favorite collaborators in global upheaval. Iran has a GDP of under $400 billion and North Korea has unreliable data which suggests GDP of $100 billion. Conditions for the average Iranian and North Korean are dismal, with per capita income levels of $4,400 and $2,000. Their leaders care far more about global aggression than the lives of their citizens. Adding the GDPs of Russia, Iran and North Korea total some $3 trillion, hardly a match for the USA or NATO combined, which account for almost half of global GDP.

Question for the military historians? How many wars were fought where one side was allowed to bomb its neighbor into oblivion and send tens of thousands of troops across their border into their small neighbor, but the nation being attacked is told by its “allies” that it cannot cross the border and attack inside the aggressors’ territory? This is the miscalculation of NATO, while the brave Ukrainian people endure nightly missile attacks.

The widely held view that Putin would not stop at the border of Ukraine if he were victorious was echoed by President Biden in his State of the Union address last week.  But he failed to credit the incredible work of the Ukrainian people to date in repelling the Russian onslaught given their much smaller population, economy and military resources. Given the threat posed by Putin, the money spent to date and the money proposed by the White House amounts to about $250 per capita spend by each American.

For this small expenditure as a percentage of the defense budgets and GDP of the USA and NATO GDP, the Ukrainian accomplishments to date are truly remarkable:

• Stopping the surprise attack on their capital city Kyiv and pushing the Russian military back to the region where fighting has been going on since and 2014.
• Russian military casualties in the tens of thousands, causing Putin to constantly draft more men, many to their graves, resulting in mounting suppressed opposition to the invasion.
• Shooting down the majority of massive nightly missile and drone attacks, showing NATO the limits of Russian warfare technology and requiring Putin to go begging for more ammunition from other pariah states like Iran and North Korea.
• Destroying 16 Russian ships in the Black Sea Fleet, without having a navy of their own.

Ukrainians Aspire to Independence and Higher Quality of Life Than Russia Can Offer

Since the fall of the USSR in 1991, the countries that became independent democracies and members of the EU have seen their nation’s wealth and per capita income rise significantly more than that of Russia or the countries stuck under Russian de facto control (e.g. Belarus to this day and Ukraine until 2014). In 2014 Ukraine was finally able to get rid of their Russian imposed President after the Maiden protests, but Russia almost immediately invaded Crimea and the eastern part of Ukraine and has forced democratic Ukraine to get bogged down in a war for independence ever since.

Former USSR states that have joined the west have experienced increases in GDP and per capita income of 8 to 10 times, or compound annual growth rates (CAGR) in the mid-teens since 1990. Ukraine and its neighbor Poland were equivalent at about $65 billion of GDP when the USSR collapsed, but a capitalist democratic Poland which joined the EU and escaped the yoke of Russian oversight has seen its GDP increase from $65 billion in 1990 to $688 billion as of 2022 the most recent year of full data. Poland’s per capita income has grown from $1,731 in 1990 to $18,321 as of 2022.  The same extraordinary growth has been generated by Lithuania, Latvia, Czech, Estonia and other East European countries. For example, Lithuania grew GDP from $7 billion in 1990 to $70 billion in 2022 and per capita income grew from $2,168 to $24,827 in 2022.

Compare these success stories which were accomplished by the hard work and ingenuity of their people in a free capitalist system, to the Russian experience. Russia has experienced GDP growth from $516 billion to $2.5 trillion, mostly the result of their oil wealth, a fourfold increase, or about 7% annually, but much less than the 13% annual growth of the nations that joined the EU. Per capita income has increased from $3,493 to $15,345 in that time frame. Thus, Russia grew at a much slower pace than their former subjugated states and on a per capita basis Russia fell behind their former colonies. Bear in mind, Russia has the benefit of tremendous natural resources wealth which has been siphoned off by oligarchs due to corruption, which significantly inflates the Russian numbers. Unfortunately, the average Russian citizen is far below the average per capita number as a result.

Ukraine has the potential to achieve the same economic growth as Poland and other neighboring states once the war and Russian aggression ends. The Ukrainians were outraged in 2013 when the Russian puppet leader Viktor Yanukovych vetoed the opportunity to sign an association agreement with the EU and this ultimately led to the Maiden Riots in 2014 which forced Yanukovych out of the country. Unfortunately, Ukraine has suffered terribly from Russian interference since 1990. The current GDP before the invasion in 2022 was just under $200 billion, or per capita income of $4,534.

 Once Ukraine’s population is allowed to blossom as a democratic capitalist society more closely aligned with the west rather than living under the thumb of the corrupt Russian regime, the economy should experience growth in the teens as well and eventually make good on debts to the west. A free capitalist Ukraine would experience a return of millions of skilled computer scientists and other highly educated citizens who could contribute to Ukraine and all of Europe via EU membership.

Bruce Harting serves on the Board of a Bank and is a Managing Director at a US investment banking firm

On Tuesday, MEPs on the Committee on Foreign Affairs will discuss the future of EU enlargement with ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries of state of EU member states.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs on the Committee on Foreign Affairs will discuss the future of EU enlargement with ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries of state of EU member states.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Tuesday, MEPs on the Committee on Foreign Affairs will discuss the future of EU enlargement with ministers, vice-ministers and secretaries of state of EU member states.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The following is a second interview with Dr. Harold Rhode.

The key to discussing the Middle East is understanding the cultures and languages. In Hebrew, you have the root P-T-Ch, corresponding to F-T-Ch in Arabic. The root has the general meaning of "open." But in Arabic, there is an additional meaning: opening up a land to Islam. So the leader in battle is called Fatih and the man who conquered Istanbul was called Mehmed Fatih.

Similarly, there is Fatah, the organization. The name is a reverse acronym of the Organization for the Liberation of Palestine -- Ḥarakat al-Taḥrīr l-Filasṭīn. The reference is to the liberation and return of all of today’s Israel – including Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip – to Islamic rule.

This concept of being "open" means that once a land has been conquered and is "open to Islam," it is Muslim forever, even if Muslim control comes to an end.

The Muslims ruled Spain from 712 CE until 1492, when the Christians finally expelled them from all of Spain. But in the Muslim mind, though their physical control over Spain ended centuries ago, Spain still belongs to the Muslims and will never be part of the non-Muslim world. Many Muslims, when mentioning Spain, often add the phrase “Allah-Willing, it will again be ruled by Muslims.”

Similarly, there was a time when all of Southeast Europe up to Vienna was under Ottoman rule. The Ottomans saw themselves as Muslims, not Turks. Their defeat in Vienna in 1683 gradually led to the complete Ottoman withdrawal from Southeast Europe, resulting in 1914 to the borders of present-day Turkey. Yet many Turks and other Muslims still talk about the area as being part of the Muslim world. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan still talks about Southeastern Europe as being “part of the Ottoman-Muslim area.”

That brings us to the years 1948-1949, when Israel defeated five Muslim armies. At the Rhodes talks in 1949, the Muslims insisted on the phrase "ceasefire lines" instead of "borders." The word "borders" implies the recognition of the people living there. Jews would have the right to live in Eretz Yisrael. A Muslim would find that unacceptable because those lands should remain Muslim forever.

To the Arabs, there is nothing magical about the lines drawn in the 1948-49 map. Those borders do not matter. The land is completely Muslim. But from the Western point of view, we are talking about how to divide up land and this is the point of pushing for the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. However, Netanyahu understands that the Arabs are not talking about Israel’s borders and how to renegotiate them. They are talking about Israel’s existence. And people cannot compromise on their existence.

This issue of borders and Israel's legitimacy caused a problem for Yasser Arafat. The 1993 Oslo Agreement was an interim agreement, not a Peace Treaty. Yet, at the very last moment, Arafat kept changing the terms. He was afraid of what might happen.

Years later, when President Clinton was trying to get Israel and Arafat to sign a Peace Agreement, Arafat was quoted as saying he would not sign because he did not want to end up drinking tea with Sadat. If Arafat had signed, he would have risked assassination like the Egyptian president, whose signing of the Egyptian agreement with Begin was viewed as a treasonous acknowledgment of Israel's right to “Muslim” territory.

There are YouTube videos of Israeli Muslim children -- whose ancestors had been living in Israel for 3 to 4 generations -- telling an Israeli journalist that Israel was Muslim land and that someday Muslims would get it back. 

When the interviewer pointed out his family had been living in Israel for many years, since 1948, the teenager responded that this is what he had been taught, both in school and at home: You Jews have no right to live here and we are going to take our land back from you. There was no issue of rights or that Jews were on the land long before the Arabs arrived in 637-638 CE.

None of that made any difference.
To the Palestinian Arabs, it still doesn't.

Quelle : © Europäische Union, 2024 - EP

Source : © Union européenne, 2024 - PE

The voter turnout in the Russian presidential election set a new record as it amounted to 77.44 percent, Ella Pamfilova, the chairwoman of the Central Election Commission said. More than 87.113 million voters took part in the Russian presidential election. "Precinct election commissions across the country have completed their work. 99.74 percent of ballots have been entered into the state automated system, so we can fully summarise the results of the presidential election,” she said.

A surreal scene played out on in London on 15 June 2022 when André Pienaar's assistant received a phone call from two Americans wanting to speak to Daniel Freeman. They thought the former managing partner at C5 Capital was still

Intelligence Online has been able to sneak a peek at the list of guests who attended the conference that Karim

As we reported on 15 March (IO, 15/03/24), the Emirati plan to create its own "Foreign Legion" within its armed